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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ed_Laprade" data-source="post: 4824155" data-attributes="member: 40172">I agree with most of this. In fact, I'm reasonably sure that somewhere in 1E there's a mention that the starting money a character recieves is, or can be, just such an item or items. (Unfortuately I no longer have my 1E books, so can't check.)  As for using three different words for what most people think of as pretty much the same things, I can only envision the most detail oriented groups 'wasting their time' on such minutia.  Also, most of this is definitely a GM thing. I can't think of many GMs who'd allow a player to just announce at the beginning of play that his character is Count Yourchange, son of Duke Nukem, without prior approval. (Rolling on a table can be just as bad, or even worse, as the results can be quite inappropriate or cause resentment.)  And there are at least a few published adventures out there that I've seen over the years that use the old 'You've inherited a castle/keep, now go clear it out' as an adventure hook.  Finally, any work put into an item as a plot hook goes out the window if the character dies, it gets destroyed, or he just plain sells the thing before finding out how important it is. (It is a not uncommon trope in stories for a character to sell an heirloom object when times are really bad, so why shouldn't an RPG character?)   Basically, IMO, most of what you've suggested is a group concern, rather than a game concern. (Although it should certainly be discussed in the GM section!) I also suspect that one of the reasons so few players don't bother with backgrounds is that they feel they don't know enough about the world to make one without stepping on the GM's toes. These are things that the players need to discuss with the GM, regarding his specific world, unless the group is using a published setting. And those come out after the basic game, usually.</blockquote>

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